Sex Ed: Model Dialogue 6ish Years Old

Help your children to view positively the development of what doctors call “secondary sex characteristics.” These are the various changes other than genital structure that distinguish men from women after puberty. Young women experience growth of the breasts and pubic hair (as well as leg and armpit hair), and develop an adult female body form, including wider hips. Young men experience growth of the penis, scrotum, and pubic, facial, and body hair; a general growth spurt; and deepening of the voice. You can anticipate these positively for the child:

CHILD: Dad, why do you have hair on your chest and everywhere while I only have hair on my head?

PARENT: Well, if you look closely, you have hair on your arms, legs, and all over your body. When the time is right, though, your hair will start to grow in many places, and it will get darker and thicker. This will happen some on your arms and legs, but especially on your face, where you will someday be able to grow a beard, and especially right over your penis. In fact, growing hair right over your penis is one of the first signs that you are beginning to change from being a boy to being a man.

CHILD: But what if I’m not ready to become a man?

PARENT: (Laughs) “Well, God knows when you’re ready, even if it seems a little scary now. He made your body so that it just starts to change whether you think you’re ready or not. And don’t worry; I want to help you during the time you are becoming a man. I’ll gladly tell you anything you want to know or talk with you about what it feels like. This is exactly what God wants for you; it’s an exciting and wonderful thing.”

Many a parent has grown up in a family that treats sexual development negatively. Whether it is a talk about “the curse” (menstruation), or derogatory talk about men as sexual animals or women as sexual objects, these sorts of ideas can be very confusing and disheartening to children. We must strive as Christians to have the attitudes toward our wondrous bodies that God Himself has.